I hope you guys remember A.A. Wallace. We did a feature on him about a week ago. If you missed it, check it out here. Anyway, I got the chance to ask the man a few questions and today I have some answers. Let’s get into it. While reading, peep this mix full of his original works, edits, and remixes.
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DE (HOUDINI): Tell us about A.A. Wallace the project and who you are as an individual. What’s a day in the life like?
A.A. Wallace: I try to write or create something everyday. Lyrics, parts, digging for samples, edits, plugging machines into machines, anything musical. Everyday something falls out of my brain and onto a hard drive. Aside from that I do all the same boring shit as most people. Astral projection, temporal discorporation, hypersleep depravation, you know 9 to 5 shit.
DE: Who are your biggest influences as an artist?
A.A.: Originally when I was writing the response to this I made a list of artists that have influenced my work (Gino Soccio, Rick White, Caribou/Manitoba, Cassius, Hawkwind, Nile Rodgers). Then I realized that the BIGGEST influence in my artistic life was a band from my hometown of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. There was a young man in that group named Brian who went on to form a band called Holy Fuck and they played a type of music i’m hesitant to call metal. I was never even a huge fan of the group but the fact that a bunch of dudes from my foggy part of the world had a real band with their own songs and played shows lit a fire under my teenaged ass that hasn’t stopped burning.
DE: What’s it like being a musician on the grind in Canada?
A.A.: It’s rough for practical reasons but easy for artistic reasons. I played guitar and sang in an indie rock bank called sleepless nights from 2003 to 2011 and we toured constantly. Compared to say somewhere like the U.S. or the U.K. we had to travel some pretty serious distances to get from one gig to the next. There are places where you have to drive for more than a day non stop to get from city to city. On the flip side of that Canada is an artistically rich country. Thanks to the CBC and a decent amount of venues and musicians there’s always something new to dig out from under the pile. I’m glad to be living in a city that can cultivate bands like Southern Shores and dog day.
DE: What’s the next step for you? More releases? Touring? Videos?
A.A.: I have tons of releases ready to go. I’ve got a full length A.A. Wallace record done and a bunch of tracks for my clubbier side project AwA sitting on a hard drive. At this point i’m just trying to figure out the right way and the right time to do things. Like most things i’ll probably just end up posting them somewhere online and not really telling anyone about them once i’m bored of it all and need to make something else.
There are no immediate plans to tour but it’s not out of the question. I’m playing a bunch of festivals this summer and I have a monthly DJ night called shake it out thats been branching out into neighbouring cities. My live shows are done with a three piece band consisting of former members of my old band sleepless nights. If anyone reading this wants to book me for some stuff hit me up on the internet.
Videos are rough for me. I’ve made a few and I usually end up just shelving them. I’ll be shooting video at all the shows this summer and hopefully I can make something out of that i’m totally happy with. I have a track called Temporal Suspension I wrote this passed christmas that I think i’m going to use this footage to make a video for. Don’t hold me to that. I have a few things up on youtube right now. I do like the one for Feels too Real that I made with clips from the BBC version of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.
DE: What’s the craziest show you’ve played? Tell us about some of the weirdest, coolest, funniest things you’ve seen in the business.
A.A.: The craziest thing i’ve ever seen is full grown man singing my own songs back to me while gazing into my eyes from the audience. The funniest is Jaguar Knight jumping off of a drum riser then accidentally impaling his man bits on a guitar while still looking totally rock and roll. But probably the most ridiculous is when my whole band took most of their clothes off at Hunter’s in P.E.I. during a heat wave and we had to stop playing early because all of our instruments fell apart…
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More A.A. Wallace on Facebook and SoundCloud.
